The advent of digital music may be making the album cover seem quaint, but some of us still believe in the full package. For better or for worse, here are the good, the bad and the ugly...

Monday, May 7, 2007

Led Zeppelin-Houses of the holy

I felt that since we took our blog name from a Zeppelin song that the first cover should be of one of their albums. Whenever Spring rolls around I particularly think of this cover. It just makes me think of the weather getting warmer and things getting greener. Perhaps the greatest strength of this cover is that it's a good blend of reality and fantasy. We have people and a place that are in real proportions, but the colors give it very much an appearance of being a fantasy type world. Something about this cover, perhaps the light or the simplicity of it makes me feel very alive. My old CD copy that I purchased around 1990 has a rectangle with the Zeppelin logo and album title blatantly slapped across a good chunk of the cover. It was like some merchandising genius at Atlantic records was terrified that people were not going to know this was Zeppelin unless it said so. Anyway it's a cover I like a great deal.

***Hope you enjoy the blog. It will be updated about three times a week so keep popping back to check out what covers we are talking about.

11 Comments:

A great cover to start with--I suspected you'd start with this one or Who's Next. This has always been a slightly disturbing cover that really seems to capture the other-worldly quality of some Zep tunes. It's perfect for this album.

Also, in anticipation of the glory that this blog will be, I've already moved it up to me "Blog I Read Consistently" list above my blogroll. I know that's a lot of pressure ... but I have no worries you three will exceed even my high expectations.

A good topic for a blog as there are so many great covers, many that the CD age does not do justice to as you touch on in the commentary. One of the things I've tried to do is give good space on my blog to the covers as they can make or break an album purchase.

This one is a fine cover (although I concur with David's 'slightly disturbing' comment) that was photographed at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and was influenced by the Arthur C Clarke book Childhood's End.

I recently got a really good copy of this on vinyl and that brings home just how good the artwork is as well as what a bloody good album it is too!

Best of luck with the blog guys - I'll add it to my 'blogroll' in the near future.

This is definitely one of those covers that is best enjoyed in the full 12x12 size (without idiotic logos to mar it). Most of the Zeppelin covers are among the most recognizable in rock and this is one of their best.

I actually saw this album cover for the first time when I was a kid. It was mysterious and somewhat disturbing to me at the time. My uncle had a few hundred albums when I was a kid in the 70's and of all the ones I looked at, I remember this one the best!!

I always thought of the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Heavy Metal the magazine, though the latter didn't come out until the late 70s, but yes, there's a disturbing element to this cover as there is an otherworldly feeling. I know the nudity is supposed to be mildly shocking, but only a random few would find it titillating.

I'm excited to see the interest in this blog right out the gate. I'm sure I can speak for my friends that we'll aim to please as well as come off with some off-the-wall stuff or stuff you might've forgotten about or be exposed to for the very first time.

My favorite album cover by Led Zeppelin is "Physical Graffiti", mostly for the story behind it's creation. Wasn't it their manager that more or less forced Atlantic Records into manufacturing a difficult cover just to stick it to 'em and assert the band's power?